About six months ago, I had a project for the Miami Herald regarding the ‘weak economy’ in which I submitted as one of my concepts, a parody of the old Charles Atlas ads (in the original, the US Dollar was being kicked around by the Euro). When it wasn’t selected, I set it aside, and sent it along to an associate of mine, who I had done a few editorial humor pieces with (and a faux children’s book earlier this year). I thought it might make an interesting graphic later on down the road, perhaps with a different subject matter. Well, this week, with the $700 billion buyout story dominating the news, it finally seemed to fall into place. The call came on Wednesday, and by Thursday night’s LA deadline it was shipped off to the Los Angeles Times for inclusion in the Friday paper. (click on the image above for a larger, easier to read version)

One disappointment though. The original bathing suit design I had put on ‘Hank’ ended up getting nixxed at the last moment. They thought it was too.. um.. racy.